07:44, Fifthsol 6th M6, 2226

I hadn't imagined that the Kida Biotechnology building could be any more beautiful, but its interior makes my breath stall in my throat. Shiro guides me into an airy foyer where bright atrium lights bathe us. My head twists to take in the foyer's loveliness until azalea-pink suits begin to crowd my vision. Kida employees knit tightly around us.

A guard nods at Shiro and offers a clipped "Welcome home, Respected," before turning on their heel. We hobble after them through labyrinthine corridors that dim as we retreat further from the glass and chrome of the foyer. A smooth downward journey in a goods lift to an underground lab complex, and I'm totally lost. It hadn't occurred to me that the brick and glass of the Kida building had been the exquisite tip of the iceberg, with the majority of the building's colossal footprint lying deep underground. Though Shiro seems to know every twist and turn of his subterranean home, I'd never find my way out unaided.

Three sets of security doors later, we emerge into a blindingly bright lab. Roaring fume hoods and glove-boxed chambers line one side of the vast space, whilst flask-stirrers tinkle on hotplates on the other. Labcoated workers busy themselves shuttling trays of tubes into incubators and pipetting glistening liquids into vials.

I whisper to Shiro, "Is this where the meatware polymers are made?"

"I don't know. My Dad never taught me what happens here. He made me work on the computing systems on the atrium level."

A worker shuffles after a trolley of vials. I recognise the laser-straight hair and the face lined with worries. Daiyu.

A sudden fog of rage descends on me at her selfishness. How can Daiyu bear to see out her final weeks as a Kida minion when she should be with Jaya?

"Daiyu! How could you?" I circle my arms wildly, taking in the lab around me. "You left Jaya for this?"

She pauses for a moment and offers me a languid stare. The proud set of her features has gone. Her face sits slack on her skull like she's dead inside. This isn't the Daiyu I knew.

"At least let Jaya know that you're OK!"

A flicker of recognition appears in her eyes. She whispers, "Jaya."

"Yes! Jaya's threatening to storm in here and get you out! They could lose their job because of you!"

"Jaya," she mutters, then continues to load the trolley before trundling away towards the lab spaces beyond, still whispering "Jaya" under her breath.

Shiro tugs me along. "You can't help her, Heems. Most people end up like her once their meatware dies."

"Why is she all... messed up? I thought that Kida could fix meatware, not make it worse! Daiyu can't even talk!"

"Meg will explain everything, I promise."

I shrug out of Shiro's grip. "What are you?"

"Our Dad left us in this mess. Meg's trying to help as best she can. Anyone whose meatware malfunctions gets taken care of, I promise."

"Taken care of? Daiyu's doing simple jobs here, but it's like... like her brain is ruined!"

"The final stage of meatware malfunction sometimes leads to... impaired cognitive function. But Meg has a place for everyone here."

"It doesn't make sense. I've treated so many radiation-sick patients and not a single one had cognitive impairment, ever."

Fear creases Shiro's features. "Then we need to tell Meg. I can't help you, but Meg can."

"You need to bring your Dad back to Eris to fix all of this."

"I told you. He abandoned us. He's not coming back." Shiro's face is so haunted that it makes my heart ache. "Besides, he can't improve on the original design. Everything's up to Meg now."

As much faith as Shiro has in his sister, and as sweet as she seems in her lens announcements, I can't believe that she doesn't have a plan to address the recent meatware malfunctions, and that the Governor-General isn't holding her responsible. I now understand Shiro's fury at the corruption of Eris, a colony designed to benefit corporations, governors and criminals, not the powerless citizens and wardens who suffer to make this Dwarf profitable.

Shiro leads me to an elegant living room lined with photographs from Earth: trees blushing with cherry blossom, an ornate bridge over a lake, a monkey mother and her red-faced child splashing in a snow-lined spring. The room has a grace that I've only ever seen in metaverse sims.

Megumi Kida sits on the floor at a long table, her legs tucked under her. A veritable picture of beauty in her lens advertisements, in real life she's so perfect that I find it hard not to stare. Her skin has a golden glow that contrasts so starkly with Shiro's sickly pallor that it sows a seed of bitterness in my heart at how she could let him endure so much pain.

The angry kernel begins to germinate as I gawp at the contents of the table. Real food. Not Shiro's rancid vend dumplings made of rehydrant and flavourings, but fresh fruits and vegetables, the kind I've only ever seen in sims of Earth mealtimes. The kind that could only have come through the Pinhole fresh, at an astronomical cost. The sight of it all makes me want to weep. Why doesn't Shiro want to live here as Eris's prince?

Megumi's eyes are bright and piercing, just like Shiro's. They dance over me, no doubt assessing what I am to her brother, and wondering why he's brought me to witness their strange reunion.

Shiro eases himself into a cross-legged pose at the table with a hiss. I rush to aid him, bearing his weight until he's settled opposite his sister. As if to announce his return, he tears at the knobbled skin of a lychee and pops it into his mouth.

"I'm not going to ask what happened to your foot." Megumi's voice is just like in her lens announcements, but with a sharp indignant pain behind the silky melody. "Where have you been this time?"

"Eris-3, Eris-5. Back here a week ago."

"You think you can just walk back in here and—"

"Meg, shut up. I'm back, aren't I?" Shiro gestures to me to sit beside him. I stay standing. "Where's Shy?"

"I haven't seen her for three days. Not that you care." Megumi finally addresses me, her voice returning to its lens-ad silk. "I'm Megumi Kida. It's so good that Shiro's made a friend."

"I'm Himanshu Singh. It's an honour to meet you, Respected."

Shiro heaves himself to his feet. I rush to him and he leans heavily on me, sucking in breaths at the effort. "Heems needs our help. Xeir meatware is uniquely defective. If you help xem, I promise I'll stay."

Megumi's serene lens-face falls away. "I'm tired of your games."

"I'll never run again. Please."

Megumi looks up from the table, amusement flitting across her face. "Himanshu Singh. I remember that name. Four years ago you applied to join Kida Biotechnology, twice. To fix this unique meatware defect of yours, I expect."

Shiro takes my hand. "Tell her, Heems."

I cling to Shiro. Megumi Kida will finally know what I am. She'll think I'm disgusting. A vampire. She'll refuse to fix me. She'll tell the wardens that I must be disposed of.

"It's OK." Shiro presses a kiss to my shaking hand. "Tell her."

I drag in a whistling breath. And another. This is what I've been waiting for. This is why I trudge up to Kida's glass door every sol.

"My... my meatware has somehow diverted my metabolism through my skin. When I t-touch someone... I d-drain their energy. Metabolising food costs me energy."

Megumi doesn't reply, but taps at her chin as if rummaging through her mighty brain for errant data.

"Meg? Is it a known defect?"demands Shiro.

She's so still that I worry that she's fallen into a trance. "Yes. Dad documented it once before."

Shiro's eyes are lit with hope. "What is it? Did he fix it?"

"Energy parasitism. The faulty meatware works on ion channels in the skin. It has turned Heems's skin into an ATP-absorber. Heems drains ATP directly from people's cells. The same error has cut off Heems's ability to metabolise food into ATP. It's a randomly-occurring defect. Dad's observation of a patient thirty years ago with similar symptoms was fascinating."

"Did he fix it?"

Megumi taps her chin again, then slides her legs from under the table as if to leave. "No. The patient didn't want to touch anyone, so she died of starvation."

Shiro clutches at me, frantic. "Find a way. Do this one thing for me, Meg. I'll never cause you any more trouble. Please."

She turns to me. "How have you survived this long without the wardens pulsing you?"

"I only take a little each time. I don't hurt anyone."

"Don't change the subject! You need to help xem! And you need to help those zombie workers too!"

Megumi runs a palm down her face. "I told you. I'm not giving up on them just because their families have."

"Heems is a doctor, and xe's never seen anyone with late-stage radiation sickness with cognitive losses, ever! You need to find out what else is happening here!"

I shove Shiro behind me and raise my arms, aware of how loud his voice has suddenly become. "Please, Respected. When the governor from Earth meets you tomorrow to plan meatware trials on Pluto, please tell them that meatware isn't ready yet. Once all of these... challenges are fixed, maybe you could suggest trials in a few years."

Megumi's face contorts with shock. It occurs to me that this meeting is supposed to be a secret, known only to governors and Megumi. Her face resets to show kindly concern, like in her 'keep warm' announcements. "It's not safe out there for you, Heems. The wardens won't be sympathetic. If they find out what you are, I don't know what they'll do to you. I can offer you a role here with Kida Biotech, safe underground. Your medical experience would be invaluable to us. We have employees who could help you to..." she points at a shuffling worker, "...feed safely and regularly."

My viscera crawl. I think of Daiyu, her face slack while I drain her every five sols.

Shiro lunges towards Megumi, "You're just like him! You said you'd end this, but you're just like him!"

I have no idea which hidden alcove they were stationed in, but two pink-clad guards emerge and latch onto Shiro. He raises his arms and shrugs them off. Megumi waves a palm and they retreat.

"Don't ever compare me to him." Megumi gazes at me, her kindly lens-face returning. "Isamu Kida was only our father in name. Four years ago he retired suddenly. He went to Earth, leaving me to take over everything. He abandoned all of us."

"You're just carrying on in his footsteps!"

"You're the one who's like him, Shiro. You abandoned us too. Crawling back here half-dead every time. Haven't you learnt that he doesn't love us? You will stay underground permanently, for your health."

"I'm not living with these fucking zombies—"

"I'm sorry." Megumi raises a palm, a gesture that Shiro seems to know well. He retreats a step. "We're all emotional. You're exhausted. Let's sleep, and tomorrow I'll look through Dad's old files about meatware glitches to work out how to help Heems."

Shiro looks doubtful, but he seems to accept Megumi's suggestion. "And you'll tell the Earth governor that meatware has been malfunctioning over the past few months? And that the final stages sometimes make people..." He throws a hand out at a slack-jawed servant clearing away plates.

"Yes. I'll tell her, Shiro. I promise."

Shiro leads me out of the living room, his weight almost unbearable as we hobble through dark corridors. "My Dad must have categorised meatware glitches of all kinds. He'll have documented how to fix you. I just know it."

There it is again. Shiro's joyous buzzing that sends my heart soaring and reminds me why I love him so much. Even if Megumi fixes me I've failed to save Daiyu, who is stuck as a strange automaton in an underground lab. Shiro's relationship with his sister seems fraught, but I feel the depth of his faith. He truly believes that I can be saved, and that trials of new meatware will be halted until deemed safe.

Unfortunately for Shiro, I don't believe a word that Megumi Kida says.

All I've wanted since I was four years old was for Kida Biotech to fix my defunct meatware, or to cut it out of me. Tomorrow I may be saved, or I may be damned. But since meeting Shiro I've come to realise that this isn't about me alone.

If Megumi Kida doesn't convince the Earth governor to abandon meatware trials on Pluto, I'll have no choice but to become as monstrous as I must be, for Eris.